Loader LA1153 Loader on Kubota M6040

[gullagej]

I have a fairly new (65 hours) Kubota M6040 with a LA1153 loader that I bought new. While moving some snow yesterday, one of the 2 main pins that holds the loader assembly in place, fell out. I was pushing snow into a bank and the failure caused the loader to swing to the left thereby bending the main frame on the left side. My dealer, Chappell tractor of Milford, NH said it will not be covered on warranty because there is no broken part that caused the problem. The poor design of the pin that does not keep the pin from falling out is not a "broken part" so tough luck for me. The service manager said that both Kubota and New Holland have the same pin design with a sliding pin the goes through a hole on the frame. It seems to me that a jarring of the tractor during normal plowing operation could allow the pin to dislodge and fall out. He said it has never happened before. Personally, I think the sliding pin should have a hole drilled in it and a spring pin through the hole to prevent the sliding pin from disengaging. I plan to do that fail safe myself once the tractor is repaired. In fact, the LA1153 owners manual states under "Reinstalling the Loader Important: 6. Stop the engine. Reinstall the mounting pins and secure them with the spring pins." So someone thinks there were or should be spring pins on the assembly like I do. Anyone else have a similar problem? Thank you, Jack

Wow that really is a shame. Are you going to take that bracket off and have it pressed back into correct orientation?

Thanks. Yeah, that's the plan. I'll let everyone know how it works.

 

[gullagej]

OK, my M6040 is repaired, painted and back in business. We removed the damaged bracket and heated and bent it back where it belonged. Installed it to make sure it fit and worked. Removed it again and scraped, primed and painted it. Re-installed and did the fail safe as designed by OVRSZD (see link) "http://www.tractorbynet.com/forums/owning-operating/300460-qa-loader-frame-latch-pin.html" It was a bit more complicated than I planned but I liked the idea.
I also replaced one hose that was crushed in the failure. It wasn't leaking but I didn't want to wait for it to fail on a Saturday afternoon when I can't get a new hose made. Total cost of repairs about $600 and 11 man hours.

After talking last week with Kubota corporate, they said my district service rep would call me in a day or two. That was a week ago and no call so it seems that Kubota is not interested in doing the right thing. This will be my last Kubota! Thanks everyone for your ideas- especially OVRSZD.

 

[ovrszd]

Jack, good to see you got it fixed. What an ordeal..... I'm also disappointed that Kubota hasn't responded quicker. Not passing judgement on them about what they should or should not have offered to do. Just disappointed that the district service rep couldn't at least call and tell you that they can't help ya. Really aggravates me to be ignored like that.

You don't owe me any thanks. Glad we could all brainstorm and offer some very easy, quick solutions. This kind of modification/fix offers little reward. Us that use it will never know how many times it saves us from such a damaging failure.

Again, glad to see you got it going. Thanks for posting the pics and describing the process of repair.

 

[wmonroe]

Good to hear you're back in business. I also agree that it is disappointing the rep hasn't called you back, I'd be on the phone with them again expressing my displeasure.

 

[foreman Etexas]

Glad you got everything back right. If they don't call you back and next thing we know the new tractors magically get a design change,will know where it came from

 

[Degolyerent]

Looks like a real good idea and a good fix! I have had mine come out and I found it laying on the trailer, I really was unsure how it happened.

 

[DT86]

That took some serious heat to straighten! I don't think my torch set would have been up to the task.

Hopefully the repair will give you years of trouble free service!

Sorry to hear about your rep. My dealer has told me more than once that the rep really makes or breaks a brand for him and I know they have dropped at least one brand of tractor because of poor service from the company rep.

 

[RFB]

Do not accept silence from the rep. Give him one more call and then go up the corporate ladder.

 

[dragoneggs]

Do not accept silence from the rep. Give him one more call and then go up the corporate ladder.

Agreed. Regardless of the fact you got it fixed on your own without help from your dealer or Kubota, continue to press them and get a response and post it. Use the power of this forum too in your pursuit with the powers at Kubota. I for one, will be looking at one of ovrszd's fixes. Both are elegant and simple but I personally feel better about a stainless spring, pin, and washer solution. It was an O ring that brought down a Space Shuttle :laughing: ... okay not funny. I also am going to bring this to the attention of my dealer. I wonder if many of us converge on our local dealers, Kubota might give this a little more attention? My :2cents:

 

[TripleR]

"I'll never buy another x, y, z etc." is common here after a bad experience and I can understand the feeling having had problems with brands other than Kubota, but after the dust settled, I will still consider them. People don't always do what they should and it's not unique to any one brand. Now I WON'T buy from certainly dealers as I have found involvement and support from them often makes the difference in how you get treated by corporate.

We are modifying the pins on our Kubotas, so thanks to the OP for posting and ovrszd for coming up with a simple solution.